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STUDENT ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM

Building student capacity and power among emerging student leaders within higher education in California.

OUR PROGRAM

The program provides students with an important opportunity to share their experiences and advocate for the changes they need to succeed in higher education and beyond.

Students will develop the basics of student advocacy and deploy a student-led campaign/project in one of our key focus areas. Students are matched with one of our program leads and are given the tools they need to create a project that addresses a student-identified issue in their focus area. 

During the program, students will expand their knowledge and understanding of their issue area by receiving mentorship from their program expert, while simultaneously developing their advocacy skills by receiving monthly training on various advocacy strategies. Students also have the opportunity to meet with issue-area leaders and advocates at our sponsored conferences or events.

 

Student Power in Action

To date, our student interns have:
01

Engaged and partnered with key players and decision making bodies, including the Department of Education, the LA City Mayor’s office, and the California Community College ASCCC OERI.

02

Authored op-eds for a range of local and national publications, including The Hill.

03

Participated in coalitions such as the nation-wide SPARC Student Committee and the California Digital Equity Coalition.

04

Facilitated a campus-wide campaign at UCLA focused on lowering the cost of its automatic textbook billing program, and ultimately securing support of the University of California Student Association.

05

Become issue area student experts and been invited to speak at statewide and national conferences including Open Ed, Cal OER, and the Community College League of California.

06

Generated cutting-edge data, which led to meaningful institutional change and activated community stakeholder support for further institutional transformation around intellectual property institutional policy.

Meet the 2026 Cohort

Britney Do

Student Basic Needs

Genesi Griggs

Smart Justice

Alisha Nagpal

Alisha Nagpal

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Meet Prior Cohorts

Christopher Espino

Student Basic Needs

Francesca Romero

Digital Equity

Abba Schwartz

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Katie Wagman

Textbook Affordability

Elleyse Garrett

Intellectual Property

Ria Babaria

Ria Babaria

Textbook Affordability

Andrea Lara Jara

Andrea Lara Jara

Student Basic Needs

Chloe Serrano

Chloe Serrano

Smart Justice

Yvonne Su

Yvonne Su

Digital Equity

Elleyse Garrett

Intellectual Property

Recent News

see all
see all
 
Student Basic Needs

Meet the 2026 Michelson 20MM Student Interns

 

Student Leaders Driving Change: Introducing the 2025 Michelson 20MM Fellows

 
Digital Equity

A Call for Digital Equity in Los Angeles: Experiences of a Student Fellow

 
Smart Justice

Welcoming the 2024 Smart Justice Spark Grant Community Advisors

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Ria Babaria
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Ria Babaria

Student Fellow, Textbook Affordability

Ria Babaria (she/her) is a Student Fellow for Michelson 20MM’s OER Initiative, where she advocates for textbook affordability and equitable access to education. She is a second-year Public Affairs major at UCLA, originally from Riverside, California.

Ria’s passion for education justice began in high school, where she saw how access to mental health care, financial aid, and stable schooling shaped student outcomes. Since then, she has authored and co-sponsored legislation in the California State Legislature to expand support for marginalized youth. At UCLA, her research focuses on school violence, exclusionary discipline, and restorative justice.

She believes that textbook costs are a structural barrier that disproportionately affects low-income and first-generation students. Through the fellowship, Ria hopes to support policy reform that removes affordability barriers and empowers students as changemakers.

Ria plans to pursue a J.D. or Master’s in Public Policy to advance education equity through law and policy.

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Andrea Lara Jara
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Andrea Lara Jara

Student Fellow, Student Basic Needs

Andrea Lara Jara (she/her) is a Basic Needs Student Fellow at Michelson 20MM, where she advocates for parenting students and uplifts the lived experiences of those navigating support systems. She is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in social work at Cal Poly Humboldt, with a focus on decolonizing social work practices to better support historically marginalized communities.

Andrea began her advocacy at Moreno Valley College, where she facilitated a student-parent support group and worked in the CalWORKs office to build community through events and discussions. Her experience led her to Project SPARC (Student Parents Are Reimagining CalWORKs), where she collaborated with peers and decision-makers to address systemic barriers.

She believes unmet basic needs reflect policy failures, not personal shortcomings. Andrea hopes to pursue a dual MSW-JD to shape policies that center care, equity, and lived experience.

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Chloe Serrano
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Chloe Serrano

Student Fellow, Smart Justice

Chloe Serrano (she/her) is a Student Fellow for Michelson 20MM’s Smart Justice Initiative, where she advocates for justice-impacted students and works to expand access to education and opportunity. She is a rising senior at UCLA majoring in Asian American Studies and Public Affairs.

Born and raised in Buena Park, CA, Chloe is a proud Korean Filipina who benefited from grants, aid, and community college. Now, she works to preserve and expand those resources for future students. Her advocacy began in junior high, when fear of gun violence drove her to organize against state-sanctioned harm.

Chloe has served as a student trustee and community development commissioner, focusing on equity in education, housing, and civic participation. Through the fellowship, she hopes to sharpen her advocacy skills and uplift justice-impacted communities.

She plans to pursue a J.D. and a career in law and policy, guided by the principle of Isang Bagsak, or “one down.”

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Cristopher Espino

Student Fellow, Student Basic Needs

Cristopher Espino (he/him) is a Student Fellow for Michelson 20MM’s Student Basic Needs Initiative, where he helps lessen student housing and food insecurity while advancing support for pregnant and parenting students. As a second-year student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), he is pursuing a double major in political science & education and social transformation studies. Cristopher is also the Chief of Senate at UCLA, where he oversees approximately 20 senators. Having gone through the foster care system, identifying as gay, being a first-generation college student, Latino, and the child of immigrants, Cristopher recalls times when his basic needs were not met. He is passionate about education policy, politics, and the intersection of law with education.

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Francesca Romero

Student Fellow, Digital Equity

Francesca Romero (she/her) is a Student Fellow for Michelson 20MM’s Digital Equity Initiative, where she helps close the digital divide in Los Angeles and beyond. She is a junior at Occidental College studying diplomacy and world affairs with minors in politics and Latino/a and Latin American Studies (LLAS). Before her fellowship, Francesca interned with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), where she researched how to bring affordable or free wi-fi to Pico Union, an initiative that is important to her because Francesca and her family had firsthand experience with the Affordable Connectivity Program. An aspiring lawyer, she is passionate about human rights, housing, and digital equity.

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Abba Schwartz

Student Fellow, Open Educational Resources (OER)

Abba Schwartz (she/her) is a Student Fellow for Michelson 20MM’s OER Initiative, where she advances the proliferation of openly licensed educational materials and zero-textbook cost degree programs. She is a second-year student at her local community college, Sierra College, pursuing a bachelor’s in political science and will obtain an Associate of Arts in women’s studies and social and behavioral sciences. As a Cal Grant, Pell Grant, and a Ward of the State recipient, Abba has been forced to use her financial aid on textbooks due to the true cost of college. Having learned about OER, Abba advocates for students who may be in similar situations. She is passionate about learning, researching, and reading about history and social issues–passions she hopes to apply to a career as a policy analyst and professor.

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Katie Wagman

Textbook Affordability Fellow

Katie Wagman (she/her) is a Student Fellow for Michelson 20MM’s Textbook Affordability initiative, where she works to ensure students have equitable access to the course materials they need. She is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), studying public affairs. Katie is increasing textbook affordability through the UC system while also implementing course marking and price transparency at UCLA. Nationally, Katie aspires to stop automatic textbook billing.  Upon graduation, she plans to obtain her Master’s in Public Policy to expand her work into health and housing policies.

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Elleyse Garrett

Legal Fellow, Intellectual Property

Elleyse Garrett (she/her) is a rising 2L at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. She graduated from UCLA in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s in public health from USC in 2021. Elleyse decided to attend law school as a career transition because she wanted to advocate for underrepresented communities. As the Michelson Intellectual Property Institute’s Legal Fellow, Ellyse is excited to deepen her knowledge of intellectual property and how HBCUs can empower students, faculty, and staff, to have ownership over their work and ideas.

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Yvonne Su
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Yvonne Su

Student Fellow, Digital Equity

Yvonne Su (she/her) is a Digital Equity Student Fellow at Michelson 20MM, where she supports efforts to close the digital divide for community college students. She is a second-year student at Coastline College studying math and data analytics and previously earned a degree in Global Studies from UCLA.

Born in Taiwan and raised in Irvine, CA, Yvonne returned to school after teaching in K–12 public schools. At Coastline, she serves as treasurer of student government and has helped revise scholarship criteria to better reflect the needs of non-traditional students.

Yvonne has directly benefited from digital equity programs and understands their value in supporting learners with limited access to devices and reliable internet. She hopes to build coalitions that improve and expand these programs nationwide.

Yvonne plans to pursue graduate studies in applied math or computer science and work in civic tech to make government services more accessible.